SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

234
Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Despite Voltaire's opposite belief, he tells us, he was
converted to the view that Charles "was put to death
by those about him, and did not fall by a shot from the
walls of Fredericshall as is commonly supposed".
But what of the general background of knowledge and
interest? For this, we may look at the information
offered by The Gentleman's Magazine, The Monthly
Review and The Critical Review.
In 1758, the Monthly 3 devoted a long article to The
Natural History of Iceland, "translated from the Danish
original of Mr N. Horrebow". The Review welcomed
the book, because "Few islands in the known world have
been more talked of, and yet less known, than Iceland:
notwithstanding its inhabitants were celebrated for their
learning, among the ancient inhabitants of the North,
and some of their poems, then considered masterpieces,
are still preserved in the library of the University of
Up sal. "
However, it was the natural curiosities of that "land
of ice and fire" that impressed the more southerly
reader - "Vulcanoes on the borders of the Frozen
Zone" ! The Review complains that the public desire
for a "genuine and particular account of Iceland" has
been thwarted by previous accounts that were both
defective and false. Horrebow had lived in Iceland for
two years and done his work in a scientific spirit - he
has determined the exact latitude of Bessested" (the
Governor's residence), gives dimensions, and discusses
geological details of soils and mountains. The Review
quotes passages describing the heaths and plains of the
interior, the pasturage and lakes, the variety of fine fish,
the 'Jokeler' ,5 the crevasses (not yet so named) in the
ice-fields. Then follows an account of the depopulation
3 Monthly Review XVIII (1758). 193 fl.
4 Proper names naturally occur in their Danish forms.
5 Cf. "A Jokul is a mountain continually covered with snow lying under
another mountain that rises higher, and is not covered with snow" iTh c
Gentleman's Magaeine XXVIII, 23).